Claudia's Corner: How to fall back in love with your home, all year-round

Sunday

Feb 10, 2013 at 2:00 AM

Valentine's Day is upon us. Instead of focusing on one day to show how much you love your loved ones, show them every day, all year-round. Actions speak louder than words or a card. Creating a home that you love is another way of showing and sharing the love.

Claudia Jacobs

Valentine's Day is upon us. Instead of focusing on one day to show how much you love your loved ones, show them every day, all year-round. Actions speak louder than words or a card. Creating a home that you love is another way of showing and sharing the love.

Fall back in love with your home by creating a home that hugs you when you come home. Life is stressful; coming home should be an instant relief.

Where to begin? Begin by getting rid of all the things you no longer need, love or want. Put your home on a diet. Don't wait till spring; start editing your stuff now. This will allow you to enjoy the things you do love and make your home feel lighter. Bonus: You'll feel lighter, too!

Start by creating piles: Donate, sell, trash. Then take action and follow through. If you have any suggestions on where to donate, send them to me to share in an upcoming column.

Rearrange furniture and accessories to create a cozy space you and your loved ones will enjoy. Many times we are so overloaded with clutter we can't get that cozy feeling. Reconnect with your home to bring back that loving feeling.

Back in November, I wrote about creating a Memory Box. The box contains memories on slips of paper to give to the recipient of your memories with them.

A reader contacted me to tell me she would create one for her husband who has significant memory loss because of a stroke. This would be his gift for Christmas. Here is her update after giving the memory box to her husband of 43 years.

Dear Claudia,

It went great! He was so pleased. I've been reading the memories to him a few here and there. He tears up with almost every one. He does that easily since his stroke anyway, and some of them are funny memories, so I'm never sure if the tears are happy ones or sad ones because he wishes he could remember.

I had to put it together pretty fast, so I'm still thinking of more memories and adding them as I do. I typed funny ones with a more playful font and special ones with a font more like you see in the picture. And I used different colors of parchment-looking cardstock also depending on what they were. I put it all in one of those fake books from Pier 1 Imports. This is what I put on the inside cover in a fancy font:

"Treasured Memories of My Life With You. One of things that gives me the greatest joy is my memories of our life together. Ever since your stroke, it has made me sad that you have lost yours. So this Christmas, I am giving you mine. Thank you for giving me so many wonderful memories for all these years. I love you!"

Thank you for sharing the idea. It made for a very special gift — one that will be special to more than just my husband for a very long time — probably generations. — Dale

I thank Dale for sharing this beautiful story. Remember to show the love all year round. Happy Valentine's Day!

Claudia Jacobs is a decorator, professional stager and owner of Claudia Jacobs Designs in Goshen. Visit claudiajacobsdesigns.com or call 294-8993. Send questions and photos to info@claudiajacobsdesigns.com.